Alice's Return to Wonderland
by Remember Alice
Summary: The Red Queen has escaped her imprisonment and plans to take the kingdom for herself, enslaving all creatures. The side of good cannot triumph without Alice. She is called back to Wonderland for yet another curious adventure.
1. Chapter 1

_Remember, Alice..._

_When you left Wonderland to go back to your world, we did not go away. We are still here, waiting for our great and courageous knight to return to us from the land above. We have struck danger again, you see, and are in desperate need of your help once more. The Red Queen and her accomplice have escaped, free, causing the land much panic. There is a great beast that lies within the woods in which they ran. If she captures that creature and tames it - a job that could be easily done if her accomplice's "pets" still rest in the woods - she would surely destroy our kingdom to take it as her own. She must be stopped. Alice, remember how you got here, remember your friends here, us, remember your bravery... We need your help. Remember, Alice..._

_-The Mad Hatter_

**Chapter 1: As Late As the Nightingale Sings**

Alice arose unmistakably early on the morning of the twelfth. "Oh, what a lovely day it is to be today! To rise so early is a pleasure for my tired eyes. So beautiful a morning, and I am granted the first to witness it!" It certainly was a grand of mornings, the sun shone brightly and all outside alit to a dazzling presence. Alice pulled back the curtains. Outside rained sunbeams throughout her quarters like a downpour from the heavens themselves. "It is so magnificent," Alice commented, in almost a whisper. "I cannot wait to experience it's comfort and warmth up close."

Alice dressed herself and headed down to corridor to start off the morning with some warm tea and croissants with jam. "I am going to spend as much of today outside as possible. It is too glorious to ignore!"

She had just about finished her breakfast when Rose, the housemaid, walked in. "Miss Liddell! You are up so early! Did you have trouble sleeping, my dear?"

"No, no trouble. It is just such a great day, I wanted to start as soon as possible." Alice smiled, and was soon out the door.

"Alright. If you need anything, just call for me and I'll be there faster than a march hare!" she shouted after Alice, but Alice had just exited earshot.

She was headed towards the gardens, her favorite place as a child and a place that would absolutely glow on a day like today. She initially intended to walk calmly, but that didn't happen for long. Her excitement for the day grew and she ended up at a sprint, running as fast as she could up the hill to the gardens. The forest in between was only a blur.

When Alice arrived, she was not disappointed with what she found. Every rose, daisy, buttercup and tiger lily gleamed with the bright morning glow, as if each flower was made of solid gold and handcrafted to the most utter perfection. Alice collapsed in the grass, exhausted after her run. The dew sparkled at the disturbance and moistened Alice's dress. She sighed. "Even the ground smells wonderful on such a fine day! How lucky I must be!" At the notion of smells, Alice sat up and put her nose to each flower, one at a time, all but memorizing each individual scent as she inhaled the sweet pollen.

Alice stood and brushed the grass blades off her knees. She looked around. "Curiouser and curiouser," she pondered, walking. Finches and sparrows darted between the trees. "With so many birds of the same color and shape, how can they possibly tell each other apart from their neighbor?"

She strolled along until the sun was high in the sky, hanging right above her head. "Oh my! It is becoming quite late. Rose and Mother will be wondering where I have gone for so long!" She gathered her dress and began walking quickly in the direction of the house. "Goodness me, I hope they are not too worried..."

There was a rustle behind Alice and she spun around. "Whose there?" She demanded. There was another rustle in the other direction. "Stop it!" A thick cloud covered up the sun, and all fell dark. Alice started running.

There were sounds all around. Out of the corner of her eye, Alice saw a flash of white fur. "What is that?" She was sprinting now, eyes wild with the start of fear. She saw the white running through the forest parallel to her path. "Is that a... Hare?" It was hard to focus on the animal while concentrating on keeping her footing. "And is he wearing... A shirt? And hat?" It was true, the hare looked prepared to join a royal court of some kind, or maybe he was already in one. Shaken by this unusual sight, Alice pushed her pace. Her legs could not move any faster.

The hare darted in front of her then into a hole only a couple meters ahead. Quite large for any ordinary rabbit hole, Alice thought. It was easily jumpable, though, so Alice kept her pace and leaped over the simple opening. She would have made it, too, if it had not moved to right beneath her feet.

Alice screamed. She had no idea what was going on. The damp earth had swallowed her up, and now she could see nothing but blackness. Feel nothing but the act of falling. She could hear no more as her scream echoed away into a land unknown.

When Alice awoke, she found herself laying beneath a very large flower, dizzy. She could barely make out the moon as she drifted in and out of consciousness. A nearby nightingale cackled, mockingly, as to make fun of Alice's unfortunate fall of fate.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: Back in Wonderland**

"Go up into the land above and find our dear Alice." The Mad Hatter commanded the March Hare. "We cannot wait another day, she must be brought immediately. Go!"

The March Hare nodded in agreement and took off, running as fast as his long legs could take him. On the other side of the kingdom's grounds, near the gardens, was the rabbit hole he used to get above. In a bound he was up the shaft, leaping upwards until he exited on the other side.

He looked all around, ears up and twitching to detect the sound of the girl. Nothing here, he thought, and he bounded through the forest. Upon reaching the edge, the March Hare caught sight of this beautiful, older girl in quite the elegant gown. "Is that... Alice?" he murmured. Surely it must be, this is where he had found her the first time they met.

The March Hare began to advance, slowly, but then he stopped. She had stood up and was walking in the direction from which he had come. He followed her patiently, making the least amount of sound as possible. A couple of times she glanced in his direction, at which he ducked beneath the nearest bush and held his breath. If she didn't remember yet, it would startle her too much to see his appearance.

Suddenly, she was running. The March Hare had to work hard to keep up with her, stretching out his legs to get the maximum distance per leap. They were quickly approaching his rabbit hole. Now was his chance.

He darted in front of her and streamed into the hole. Alice tried to jump it, but the March Hare made sure that she made it in. She screamed when she realized that ground was no longer beneath her feet, and fell down the rabbit hole leading to wonderland.

The March Hare followed her downward, and saw she landed in unconsciousness. He gently pulled her over to be underneath a nearby tiger lily, in case it rained before she woke up, and told the tiger lily to please watch over her until she wakes.

With that, he left to go tell the Mad Hatter the good news: Alice was back in Wonderland.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: Hopelessly Lost**

Alice awoke into a foggy morn. She sat up slowly and wiped the sleep from her eyes. "Oh, what a terrible dream I had last night!" She looked around. "My, oh my, I must have fallen asleep outside while I was on my adventure. Mother and Rose must be so very worried and anxious for my return." Alice stood and leaned upon a nearby trunk.

"Hey! What am I, a wall?" an aggravated voice shouted from above. This startled Alice and she fell backward with a gasp. She looked up, but saw only a really big flower. Confused, Alice spoke.

"Who is there? Who are you? _Where_ are you?" she asked, toying with the thought that the voice might have just been her imagination, and there was nothing there.

"I am Tiger Lily, and I am right here! Right in front of your face!" Tiger Lily snapped, leaning down so close that Alice was choked with the scent of pollen. "You humans think you're _so_ special, and that everything is just _your_ furniture to do what you please. Well I have something to say to _you_, missy!" The stunned Alice took a few steps back, fearing the snobby flower. "I stood here silently all night, making sure not to bother your sleep, even when your awful human noises bothered mine. No, I didn't make one peep! And then you finally wake up when the day has long begun and rest your filthy self upon my stem!" Tiger Lily stood up straight, still staring at Alice. "The atrocity!" she scoffed.

Alice was quite taken aback by this rant by miss Tiger Lily. "I - I'm sorry to have bothered you," she stammered.

"And sorry you should be!" Tiger Lily crossed her arms and put what would be her nose up in the air.

"Sorry..." Alice whispered, backing away. She turned and ran until she was out of the snobby flower's sight.

It wasn't long before Alice came to a brook. It wasn't too wide to jump across, but across was not where Alice wished to go. "If water flows downhill," she pondered, eyeing the trail of water to her left, "Then I could follow this brook upstream to find some sort of lookout point to see where I am." Alice looked to her right, decided that's where she would go, and off she went.

In a few moments, Alice realized that where she was heading was not uphill, it was down. "What a strange land this is, where upstream is downhill!" She turned around. "Curiouser and curiouser…" she pondered and walked in the direction she had come, passing where she stood before and continuing on. She would pass that exact spot three times before she realized that she was going in circles.

"In what land do streams go in circles?" she yelled at the curious waters. From them came no response to such a puzzling question. "Ugh!" Alice jumped across the stream and stomped off, so very frustrated at the daylight she had just wasted going in circles. "In _circles_!" she thought, "What kind of wretched stream would flow in circles?" She ran, extremely frustrated with the stream, but even more frustrated at herself for wasting such time. She still didn't know where she was or how she was to ever get home.

In her anger, she pushed herself to run faster. Faster, faster she ran, trees whizzing by her while the wind whistled between them. Alice shut her eyes, the images were making her dizzy. She pushed on, running so fast that it was like her feet weren't contacting the ground anymore, or maybe they had gone numb and she was dreaming.

"Aah!" she screamed, and her eyes flew open. In the sudden jerk, Alice tripped over her own feet and fell onto the grass beneath. Tears trickled down her cheeks, but she was not hurt, only embarrassed.

Alice lifted her eyes from the ground and slowly pushed herself up, glancing around to see if there was anyone who could have seen her fall. There wasn't, and she again faced forward.

At first, Alice could not believe her eyes. In front of her was the grandest of all grand valleys, so vast, so flat. She stood speechless in it's beauty. There were patches of dark meadows and light meadows, in perfect square patterns, almost like a chess board.

No, it _was_ a chess board.

"Where am I?" Alice pondered. "In a land where streams run in circles and meadows are giant chessboards…" It was then that Alice noticed little figures moving around the squares, little card men. Or, big card men, Alice assumed, since they were so far away.

"What in the-" Alice's thoughts were cut off abruptly by the sound of yelling behind her. A gruff voice with authority was coming out of the forest towards Alice.

"OFF WITH HER HEAD! OFF WITH HER HEAD! The blonde of the stories is back! GUARDS! OFF WITH HER HEAD!"

Suddenly realizing that the voice was coming for _her_, Alice took off, fear allowing her legs to run even faster than before. Down the hill, she went. Towards the chessboard meadows. She could soon see that there was a powerful river blocking her path, Alice could not jump this one. If she did, she would fall and get swept away by the river and surely drown. She took a sharp left a few yards from its banks and continued, she could not allow herself to be caught. She had a feeling that the one pursuing her would not be one to listen to reason.

Alice turned slightly away from the river into another forest, keeping her pace. The shouts seemed to be getting closer, but Alice was positive this was all just a delusion. Again she saw a small figure beside her. "The march hare?" Alice didn't need to ask, it was clearly the same white rabbit that had brought her to this crazy world in the first place.

"Come on, follow me," the hare whispered, and turned right. Alice really didn't have a choice. Follow the rabbit or be beheaded, and she didn't like the idea of the latter. Alice swallowed hard and also took a right.

"This way," the hare continued, "In here." They reached a large tree with a burnt-out part of the trunk in which to hide. There was plenty of room inside for both Alice and the rabbit, and they waited until the guards had thoroughly passed before exiting.

"Well that was close," Alice stated, trying to make conversation. "Thanks for saving me."

The march hare did not respond immediately. He was looking around to verify that they were out of danger for the moment. When he spoke, it was not in response to Alice's conversation.

"We need to get you to a safe place," he said, walking. "It is too dangerous for you to be out in the open like this. Here, follow me. There is already such a place for you." Alice followed him, unable to speak. She still had not processed the whole situation, and, by the tone of the hare's voice, she could tell that she did not know the full story of it, either.


End file.
